


here and now

by luxaucupe



Series: terra firma [7]
Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: :), M/M, it really doesn't need any description beyond :), just :), that's all I'm gonna say
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-26 23:34:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20397982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luxaucupe/pseuds/luxaucupe
Summary: It doesn’t take a genius to come up with eighteen different variants ofI want to be with you forever.





	here and now

**Author's Note:**

> look, i know i said the last one of this series was, y'know, the last one, but i had three more lil stories to tell, and this is the first of those three.  
absolutely no warnings of any kind, a first for me. i just wanted. to write. cute. good. nice.  
today's song recs: pleaser by wallows and diamonds and gold by abra

He falls more in love with Daniel each day.

It’s one of those feelings that he was once so certain was a lie, just some rose-coloured tapestry woven solely as a bit of garnish to add to gushy romance media. Even if true love or soulmates or goddamn _ whatever _were a real thing, love wouldn’t grow once it reached its capacity. The most genuine affection would still reach a critical mass, and the most one could ever hope for would be to maintain that steady maximum. Everything has its limit.

And then he’d wake up in the morning, curled up beside his half-asleep boyfriend, and he’d laugh silently in disbelief at how utterly beautiful Daniel looked with his nose all scrunched up in frustration, the rising sun streaking across his eyes. There was no doubt, not an ounce of missing certainty, that he was more in love that morning than he had been the day before.

But the day would pass, and a new one would begin, and he’d be _ so _ in love, and he’d feel the certainty all over again.

Every day of every month of every year. Four years, going on five. This, this is their happy ending. They’ve earned as much.

He sits sprawled on the couch, reveling in the gentle evening breeze from the open balcony doors, and falls a little bit more in love. The small weight clutched in his palm has melded so completely with his body temperature that he almost forgets it’s there.

He runs the pad of his thumb along the object’s edge. Meteorite iron streaked with the deep orange of copper. He slips it back into his pocket for now.

It’s a lovely ring.

Daniel, thankfully, is seated at the breakfast nook on the other side of the room, too busy grading his students’ classwork to spare a glance in his direction. It isn’t Eiffel’s favourite, when he gets all fixated like this, but it’s forgivable when he sees how happy it all makes him. Associate professor at MIT is a hell of a step up from corporate assassin.

“Daniel.” Eiffel smiles and tilts his head. “Darling. Sunshine. It’s _ Friday. _ You don’t have to get those all done tonight.”

Daniel glances up suddenly from the tower of essays and grins apologetically, fussing with the arms of his glasses. “I know, I know, but these are from my microelectromechanical systems class, and you _ know _how much editing some of these are gonna need. They’re bright, but half of them can’t write for shit.”

Eiffel shakes his head, amused, and slinks over to the kitchen and back, french press in hand. He tops off Daniel’s coffee mug, renewing it with warmth. He sets down his pen, a soft, appreciative expression replacing the laser focus almost immediately. “Thanks. Love you.”

Eiffel pecks him on the cheek and heads back to the couch, grabbing a book on the way over, cautious not to step on Tybalt’s tail, which blends in terrifyingly well with the wood of the floor.

Tybalt is, in his very professional opinion, a super lame name for a cat. It’s a dumb reference and a dumb joke and a hill which Eiffel will absolutely die on. It also has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he’s never read _ Romeo and Juliet. _ But Eiffel got to name Hertz years ago, so it’s only fair that Daniel got a turn. _ Supposedly. _ Still, it’s a lame name. Daniel’s lucky Eiffel loves him so much.

He tries to focus on the book in his hands, but his attention keeps drifting, sometimes to Hertz, curled up in one of the potted plants on the balcony, sometimes to the weight in his pocket, mostly back to Daniel, backlit by the blues and greens of the just-set sun, chewing on the end of his pen.

God, he’s everything. He’s just — everything. He’s everything.

The initial plan, if you can even call it that, was some big gesture. Well, _ medium _ gesture. Nothing drastic.

A romantic dinner, maybe, at some pretty spot on the north bank. A pretty rooftop, or one of the parks. Somewhere nice. Sometime nice.

But here’s nice. Now’s nice.

By now, Daniel’s noticed his staring. He sets down his pen and sits sideways in his chair, brushing the bangs from his eyes. “What?” he huffs, but Eiffel just smiles, just keeps looking at him.

He _ could _ ad lib something. If there’s one thing Eiffel’s great at, it’s rambling. He has no shortage of things to say — he’s not the most elegant at waxing poetic, but it doesn’t take a genius to come up with eighteen different variants of _ I want to be with you forever. _

He could talk about how he’s gotten to spend years watching Daniel fall in love with life and with him. That each day with him is home, is joy, is a new adventure. That there’s no greater paradise than being beside him.

But right now, something’s telling him he doesn’t need to.

Daniel blinks at him, maybe in amusement, maybe confusion, as he stand up from the couch and walks over to him.

He blinks again as Eiffel kneels on the floor.

Eiffel pulls the ring from his pocket and holds it out between them. There’s a terrifying, wonderful moment, the swooping feeling right before diving into an icy river, as he watches Daniel’s curiosity turn into realization, and then into surprise. Eiffel closes his eyes, just for a moment, just to take a slow breath, and opens them again.

He looks so beautiful. He always looks so beautiful.

“Marry me?” Eiffel asks, and revels in the incomparable feeling of saying it aloud.

Daniel opens his mouth as if he might speak, just for a second, and then that second passes. Eiffel is pulled forward as Daniel lurches down to him, pulling him close, arms looped around his back in a tight embrace.

They stay like that for a while, long enough that Hertz pulls herself from the planter and brushes against their legs, long enough that the silence stops weighing oppressively on his shoulders and instead feels like a comfort.

Daniel pulls back from him eventually, arms still held tight against him.

“You crying?” he asks, brushing the tears from Daniel’s face with his sleeve.

_ “Of course _ .” He’s grinning, now, absolutely beaming through the sniffles, and he just looks… happy. Just _ so _ goddamn happy.

“Of course you’re crying, or of course you’ll marry me?”

_“Of course_,” he repeats, resting their foreheads together.

There’s a quiet moment, a nice moment, as Eiffel takes Daniel’s hand in his.

“So, that’s, like, a yes?”

He expects a response, something joking or teasing, Daniel lovingly calling him a dummy or a nerd. Instead, he gets a nod, he gets closed eyes and a radiant smile, kneeling together on the floor. He slips the ring onto Daniel’s finger, and just stares at it. Just… can’t _ not _ look at it, at him.

“We,” Daniel says, a pensive, serious look on his face, “are engaged.”

There’s a pause, and they both laugh, still pressed against each other. 

“_We,_” he repeats once more, still laughing, holding up his hand to get a good look at the ring, “are _ engaged. _ To _ each other. _ We’re engaged. Eiffel. Doug. We’re _ engaged._”

“We are.” 

“You’re my _ fiancé._”

“And you’re mine.”

“That’s _ so fucking cool._”

He falls against Daniel, shaking with laughter again. “The _ coolest._”

Hertz meows loudly.

“Shut up, Hertz,” he says, and Tybalt mews back. 

In time, they stand together, Eiffel’s arms looped loose around his waist as he spins them around slowly, a silent sort of dance, sweet and genuine.

“Guess what?”

Daniel sighs, a soft and happy sound. “What?”

“Love you.”

He smiles against Eiffel’s shoulder. “I love you, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> daniel's ring is, of course, made of orange metal and meteorite.  
the one he gives eiffel later is rhodium inlaid with amber. rhodium, as the shiniest metal in existence, is eiffel's favorite element. the amber is just because it's nice.
> 
> (as always, comments mean the world, and thanks for reading.)


End file.
